Gov. Scott Walker is interviewed by reporters during a break in the National Governor's Association Winter Meeting on Sunday in Washington.

No smoking gun has yet been found in the 28,000 pages of recently released email records that would tie the illegal activities of former aides to then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.

Walker's top aide, Kelly Rindfleisch, was convicted of misconduct in office and sentenced to jail for performing campaign work on the taxpayer dime. Five other Walker aides and associates were convicted of lesser charges following a three-year investigation.

Walker, now nearing the end of his first term as Wisconsin governor, has denied knowing there was illegal campaign activity happening in his executive office, and repeatedly points to the fact that he was not charged in the investigation led by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat.

Some of Walker's proponents point to that fact to attack the media for continuing to dig into the deluge of emails, and they think it wrong for the press to carry on its investigation into whether Walker was involved in the illegal activities of his former aides.

That type of characterization misses the point, however. It is the job of the media to find things out and to uncover the truth, even beyond official investigations. The media would not be doing its job if it left unattended 28,000 pages of documents related - even if in ancillary fashion - to a governor often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.

It would amount to a cardinal sin of the profession for journalists to throw up their hands and give the governor a free pass simply because he was not charged the first time around. The probe is not the witch hunt some Walker adherents believe it to be; it is merely the media doing the government watchdog job the public expects. It may uncover nothing new, but that does not make it an exercise in futility nor in partisanship.

We do not relish the possibility of the governor of our state being involved in improper or illegal activity. If Walker is innocent, the records will prove it. If he isn't, the records will show that as well. The only harm would be in not looking.

Walker on Tuesday, responding to release of the emails for the first time, said he has taken steps since becoming governor in 2011 to separate official state business from campaigning. He said he carries one cellphone for personal use and another for official state business, and requires all of his cabinet secretaries and staff to go through ethics training.

Those are encouraging steps he probably wishes he had taken in his days as Milwaukee County executive. But that die already is cast and the records of misconduct by his staff are out there for the world to see. They include evidence of illegal campaign activity, racist remarks and a generally cavalier attitude toward the office they represented.

Journalists acting as independent watchdogs pushed along investigation into these untoward activities. We should all be thankful that presence remains a force as the probe into the email records goes forward.